Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-07-16
THE REV. DR.. TALMAGE,
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUNDAY
SERMON.
Subject. GLOW to Save the Cities"

TEXT: "And the men of the city said unto
Elisha: Behold, Iprdy thee, the situation Of
thus city is pleasant, as my Lord seeth; but
the lcater Is Ydught, and the ground barren.
And he said. Bring me q fleW cruise, and
put salt therein. And they brought It to him.
And he tUent forth unto the spring of the
irdters, and cast the salt IN there, and said:
Thus, said the Lord, hdue healed these
sCdters; there shall not be from thence any
more death or barren land. ,Sosthe qUdte1s
acre healed unto this ddy."-2 Kings H.,
1922
1t is difficult to estimate how much of the
prosperity and health of city are dependent
upon good water. The time when, through
well-laid pipes and from safe reservoir, an
abundance of water from Croton, or Ridge
wood, or Schuylkill is brought into the city
is appropriately celebrated with grafton and
pyrotechnic display. Thank God every day
for clear, bright beautiful sparkling water
as it drops in the shower or losses up in the
fountain, or rushes out at the hydrant.
The City of Jericho, notwithstanding all
its physical and commercial advantages, was
lacking in this important element. There
was enough water, but it was diseased, and
the people were crying out by reason thereof.
elisha the prophet, comes to the rescue He
says: Get me new cruise; fill it with salt
and bring it to me-" So the cruise of salt was
brought to the prophet, and see him walk
ing out to the general reservoir, and 10! all
Jue uepdTb, through supernatural
and divine influence, and the waters are
good and fresh and clear, and all the people
clap their hands and lift up their faces i'll the
giadness Water for JeTicho-clear, bright,
beautiful, God-given water
At different times have pointed out to you
the fountains of municipal corruption, and
this morning propose to show you what are
the means for the rectifcation Of those foun-
tains. There are four or five kinds of salt
that have cleansing tendency. So far as
God may help me, l shall bring a cruise of
salt to the work, and empty it into the great
reservoir of municipal crime, sin, and shame,
ignorance and abomination.
In this work of cleansing our cities, l have
first to remark, that there is a work for the
broom and shovel that nothing else can do.
There always has been an intimate connection
between iniquity and dirt The filthy parts
of the great cities are always the most iniqui-
tous parts. The cutters and the pavements
of the Fourth Ward, New York, illustrate
and symbolic the character of the people in
the Fourth Ward.
The first thing that bad man does when
he is converted is thoroughly to wash him
self. There were, this morning, on the way
to the different churches, thousands of men in
proper apparel who, before their conversion,
were unfit in their Sabbath dress. When on
the Sabbath i see a man uncleanly in his
dress, my suspicious in regard to his moral
character are aroused and they are ALWAYS
lack Of ablution, God has cleft the continents
with rivers and lakes, and has sunk five great
oceans, and all the world ought to be clean.
Away, then, with the dirt from our cities,
not only because the physical health needs an
ablution, but because all the great moral and
religious interests Of the cities demand it as a
positive necessity. A filthy city always has
been and always will be wicked city.
Through the upturning of the earth for
great Improvement our city could not be ex-
pected to be as clean as usual, but for the
Illimitable dirt of BROOKLYN for the last six
months there is no excuse 1t is not merely
matter of dust in the eyes, and mud for the
shoes, and of stencil for the nostrils, but of
morals for the soul.
Another corrective influence that we would
bring TO bear upon the evils of great cities
is Christian printing press. The news
papers of any place are the test of its moral
Ity. Tue newsboy who runs along the street
with roll of papers under his arm is a ire
mendous force that cannot be turned aside
nor resisted, and at his every step the
city is elevated or degraded. This hun
CRY, all-devouring American mind must
have something to read, and upon ed
itors and authors and book publishers and
parents and teachers rests the responsibility of
what they shall read. Almost every man
you meet has book in his hand or q news
paper in his pocket What book is it you
have in your handf What newspaper is it
you have in your pocket? Ministers may
preach, reformers may plan, philanthropists
may toll for the elevation of the suffer
ing and the criminal, but until all
the newspapers of the land and all
the booksellers of the land set themselves
against an iniquitous literature=uhtil then
we shall be fighting against fearful Odds
Every time the cylinders OF our great pub
fishing houses turn they make the earth
quake. From them goes forth thought like
an angel of light to feed and bless the world,
or like an angel of darkness to smite it with
corruption and SIN and shame and death. may
God by His omnipotent Spirit purify and ele-
vate the American printing pressl
60 on further and say that we must de-
pend upon the school for great deal Of cor
recting influence. A continuity can no more
afford to have ignorant men in its midst than
stcan afford to have uncaged hyenas. Ig-
norance is the mother of hydra-headed crime
Thirty-one per cent. of all the criminals of
New York State can neither read nor write
intellectual darkness is generally the pre-
cursor OF moral darkness. know
there are educated uutlaMs-mefi
Sho, through their sharpness of in
tellect, are made more dangerous They
use their fine penmanship in signing other
peoples names, aud their science in ingenious
burglaries, and their fine manners in adroit
hbert3nism. They go their round of sin with
well-cut apparel, and dangling je,geIry, and
watches Of eighteen karats, and kid gloves
IncJ are TeIileu, euucated, magnificent vii
lains. But that is theexception IL is generally
the case that the criminal classes are as igno-
rant as they are wicked. For the proof of
what say, go into the prisons and peniten-
tarles, and look upon the men and women in
carcerated The dishonesty in the eve. the
low passion in the lip are not more conspicu-
Gus Than the ignorance in the forehead The
ignorant classes are always the dangerous
classes, Demagogues marshal them. They
are hemless and are driven before the gale.
IL is high time that all city and State a,i-
thority, as well as the Federal Government
appreciate the awful statistics that while years
ago in this country there was set apart forty
eight millions Of acres for school purposes
there are now in New England one hundred
and ninety one thousand people who can
neither read nor write, and in the State of
Pennsylvania two hundred and twenty
Two thousand who can neither read nor
write, and in the State Of New York two
hundred and forty-one thousand who can
neither read nor write, while in the United
states there are nearly six millions who can
neither read nor write Statistics enough 10
stagger and confound any man who loves his
siod and his country. Now. in view Of tins
Iact, am in favor Of compulsory etluca-
tion. When parents are 80 bestial as 70 neglect
this duty 10 the child, / saw the law.
"a u fuo has. - 4